Swiss are “too restrictive” over Syrian refugees

Switzerland should grant more Syrians full refugee status rather than just temporary residency, a top official from the United Nation’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has declared. In an interview in Sunday’s NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, Anja Klug, UNHCR’s representative for Switzerland, criticized the fact that most Syrians allowed to stay in Switzerland were only given temporary residency.  “Switzerland is applying a much too restrictive policy towards Syrian asylum-seekers,” Klug declared.  She said only 35% of Syrians are officially given refugee status by the Swiss authorities, while this percentage rises to 70% on average in other European countries. “The people who are only given temporary residency have to deal with the risk that they might be sent back to Syria from Switzerland at any given time,” she said, adding that this leads to feelings of insecurity for refugees.  These sentiments are exacerbated by the fact that family members are often not allowed to follow ...